Strangely Becoming
Juliet Martinez
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Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Egyptian court removes barriers to ID documents for Baha'is

GENEVA (16 March 2009) - A court in Egypt today removed any grounds for preventing Baha'is from receiving proper official identity documents, clearing the way for an end to years of deprivation for Egyptian Baha'is - and opening the door to a new level of respect for religious privacy in Egypt.
...
For nearly five years, since the government began introducing a computerized identity card system that locked out all religious classifications except Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, Baha'is have been unable to get documents essential to day-to-day life. Among other things, they have been blocked from obtaining education, financial services, and even health care in
government hospitals.

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Friday, March 13th, 2009

Message for Christiane Amanpour: On Genocide



http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-221797?ref=email
mood: grateful
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Friday, March 6th, 2009

A letter from the Baha'i Intl. Community to the Prosecutor General of Iran

Your Honor,

Your recent announcement regarding the administrative affairs of the Bahá’ís of Iran has brought to the arena of public debate issues which not only affect the safety and livelihood of the members of that community but also have profound implications for the future of every citizen of that esteemed nation. The steps that have been taken to formulate the response of the Iranian Bahá’í community to your announcement have surely been communicated to you. The Yaran and the Khademin, the small groups that have been attending to the spiritual and social needs of the several hundred thousand Bahá’ís of Iran, the former at the national level and the latter at the local, have expressed their willingness to bring to a close their collective functioning. This decision has been made for no other reason than to demonstrate yet again the goodwill that the Bahá’ís have consistently shown to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the past thirty years.

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Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Timeline of the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran

Highly visual and interactive timeline starting with the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
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Thursday, February 26th, 2009

An Ayyam-i-Ha gift for the Friends in Iran

Today at Iran Press Watch:
Iran Press Watch has learned through reliable sources on Wednesday, 25 February 2009, that the seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders have been given permission to meet with their families and that their trial has been postponed for 2 weeks.

As further updates are made available, Iran Press Watch will bring them to its readers’ attention.

Ayyam-i-Ha started last night at sunset, a Baha'i celebration of the four days (five in leap years) that lie outside the Baha'i calendar. These days are associated with the essence of God, a time of gift giving, charity, hospitality and preparation for the 19-day Fast that follows. The sunup to sundown Fast is bracketed on the other end by Naw Ruz, the Baha'i (and traditional Persian) new year on the Spring Equinox.

Paula and I rang in the holiday by blowing up balloons, a family tradition, and skyping with my parents. My parents watched as Paula opened her first gift from them, a board book with a beautifully illustrated prayer, "Oh, God, educate these children."

Happy Ayyam-i-Ha to all of you!
mood: all right
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Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

Message and Prayer for the Baha'is of Iran

I love the tone this message strikes of hope and friendship with the Iranian people.

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Iran Press Watch: An Open Letter to Iran's Prosecutor-General

Your Excellency, Ayatollah Dorri-Najafabadi, Iran’s Prosecutor-General,

Acting on deep concern for the lives of the seven Iranian Baha’i leaders whose lives are in imminent danger, we write you in advance of their imminent trial in Tehran. We urge you to dismiss the charges against these seven citizens for the following reasons.
( Full arguments refuting the charges against the seven Friends in Iran )
Full text with citations

Summary of charges and arguments:
1. Espionage for Israel: Baha'is are excluded from Iranian society to such an extent that they have no access to secrets that would be of use to Israel. But more importantly Baha'is are under religious obligation to obey our governments. These individuals have been surveilled for a many years and have committed no crimes of any kind, much less espionage.

2. Enmity toward Islam and the Islamic system: Of all the religious minorities in Iran, none revere Islam, the Prophet Muhammed and its holy book the Qur'an more than the Baha'is. Baha'is are friends of Islam, even defending Muslims whenever they come under external attack. Sadly, the Iranian government's own intolerant actions are tarnishing Islam's reputation.

3. Baha'i connections to Israel: Baha'is have been based in what is now Israel since 80 years before the modern state existed. Baha'u'llah was banished from Iran, exiled and imprisoned in the walled city of Acca by the two preeminent Muslim monarchs of the time: The Ottoman Turk Emperor and the King of Persia. If Baha'is are Zionists (whatever that means), then by definition Israeli Arabs and the Islamic authorities who are in charge of the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem must be Israeli agents because the third most holy site in Islam is situated there.
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CBS: Iran Cracks Down on Religious Minorities

Iranian judges will soon sentence seven members of a religious minority arrested a year ago.

The members of the Baha'i faith, in jail since the spring of 2008, have been accused of spying for Israel.

The government now appears to be preparing a public case against the prisoners, perhaps in response to accusations from human rights groups that the arrests were religious persecution.

Iran's Attorney General has said that, although Iran's Constitution says no person can be persecuted simply for holding a religious belief, individuals don't have the right to "publicize their beliefs or try to manipulate the public."

Ayatollah Dorri Najafabadi also claimed there is evidence that the Baha'is (a breakaway Islamic sect) have close ties with Iran's foreign enemies.

Hee! "Breakaway Islamic sect" ... That's funny!

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Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

The Netherlands condemns trial of Iranian Baháis

Netherlands is concerned about the trial of seven leaders of the Bahá’i community in Iran. The seven have been held since May, without any access to legal assistance, on charges of blasphemy and spying for Israel. The trial opens this week.

The leaders of the Bahá’i, a religious minority in Iran, are facing a possible death sentence if convicted of the charges. The Netherlands fears that the trial will not be fair, and it has asked Iran through the EU to allow an independent observer to monitor the judicial process.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen is seriously concerned about the fate of the Bahá’is: ‘The Netherlands will continue to work hard to eliminate human rights violations and the oppression of religious and ethnic minorities. We will do this bilaterally, by repeatedly calling the Iranian authorities to account for their human rights policy, and internationally, by bringing the plight of religious minorities to the attention of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.’

At the initiative of the Netherlands and several other member states, the EU has issued a declaration objecting to this instance of religious discrimination. Not only are many Bahá’is being detained without formal charges, they are also excluded from Iranian universities and denied certain permits.
Story at Isria.info
Statement from Dutch Minstry of Foreign Affairs
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Monday, February 23rd, 2009

USCIRF: Iran moving to eradicate Baha’i faith

Washington, 19 February (IranVNC)—Iran is engaging in a “systematic” effort to “eradicate” the banned Baha’i faith in that country, a senior analyst at the US Commission on International Religious Freedom [USCIRF] told IranVNC yesterday.

On Tuesday, Iran’s Judiciary spokesperson, Alireza Jamshidi, said that seven Iranian members of the national Baha’i coordinating committee, charged with espionage, could be indicted by next week. The seven individuals have been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison, since their arrests in March and May 2008.

“There’s now a systematic, clear effort to eradicate and destroy the Baha’i community at large,” said Dwight Bashir, a senior policy analyst at the USCIRF.

Video
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Saturday, February 21st, 2009

CNN: Religious leaders face spying charges in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Seven imprisoned leaders of the Baha'i faith in Iran have been accused of espionage and will face court hearings within a week, a judicial spokesman said Wednesday.

Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ali-Reza Jamshidi saying the charges related to acts including spying for "foreigners," a term regarded as a reference to Iran's archenemy, Israel.

"One of their accusations is that they had cooperated with Israel. Generally, the Bahai's are accused of this," said Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian rights activist who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. She says her team at the Center for Defenders of Human Rights in Iran has taken their case.

Iranian Baha'is have faced systematic persecution in Iran under the current government, which regards their faith as heretical.

Read more
mood: worried
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Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

Please write your representative re: House Resolution 175

The United States House of Representatives has introduced a resolution, H.Res.175, condemning the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran.

The resolution was sponsored by Representatives Mark Kirk, James McGovern, Brad Sherman, Dan Burton, Bill Foster, Maurice Hinchey, Frank Wolf, and Jim Moran.

Please write to ask your Representative to co-sponsor and vote for this resolution. Visit www.house.gov and enter your “zip plus four” code (just your 6-digit zip will work, too). Click on the homepage for your Representative. Follow the instructions for sending an email message and ask your Representative to co-sponsor the resolution.

Thank you!
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Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

Rainn Wilson via CNN.com: Stop Religous Persecution in Iran

Dear readers of CNN, I assure you that what I'm writing about is no joking matter or some hoax perpetrated by a paper-sellin', bear-fearin', Battlestar-Galactica obsessed beet farmer.

I am a member of the Baha'i faith.

Full story.
mood: calm
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Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

UN report cites Iranian government's violations against Baha'is

UNITED NATIONS, 22 October 2008 (BWNS) -- U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed his concern over human rights violations in Iran against Baha'is, other minorities, women and juveniles.

In a 20-page document released on Monday, Mr. Ban responded to a request from the General Assembly last December for a "comprehensive report" on the human rights situation in Iran.

While noting some positive achievements, Mr. Ban stated that although Iran's constitution guarantees a wide range of fundamental freedoms, "in practice there are a number of serious impediments to the full protection of human rights."

His report expressed concern about the use of torture, a "high incidence of executions," and "an increase in rights violations targeting women, university students, teachers, workers and other activist groups."

Read more
mood: concerned
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Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Iran's New School Year Again Excludes Baha'is

From http://news.bahai.org/

NEW YORK – As the new academic year got under way, young Baha'is in Iran again found the door to higher education closed.

Although in its public stance the Iranian government says Baha'is are free to attend university, reports indicate that the policy of preventing Baha'is from obtaining higher education remains in effect. Students this fall found that their exam results were frozen and their files listed as “incomplete” on the Web site of the national testing organization.
mood: troubled
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Good thoughts

The happiness and pride of a nation consist in this, that it should shine out like the sun in the high heaven of knowledge. "Shall they who have knowledge and they who have it not, be treated alike?"*

And the honor and distinction of the individual consist in this, that he among all the world's multitudes should become a source of social good. Is any larger bounty conceivable than this, that an individual, looking within himself, should find that by the confirming grace of God he has become the cause of peace and well-being, of happiness and advantage to his fellow men? No, by the one true God, there is no greater bliss, no more complete delight.

'Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization
(Wilmette: US Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1990 pocket-size edition) Pp. 2-3.
Available from http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SDC/sdc-1.html#pg2

*from the Quran 39: 12
mood: calm
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Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

Great article: Then They Came for the Bahai

http://www.forward.com/articles/13602/

American audiences, their eyes brimming with anxiety, often ask me about the condition of Jews living in Iran today. But the hardships they assume to be the burden of the Iranian Jews is really the daily experience of the Bahais.
mood: thoughtful
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Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

Baha'i! And Lesotho! On the radio! Today!

Baha'i Election

(She mis-pronounces Baha'u'llah, but gets everything else right)

Lesotho Gardens Relieve Food Crisis

It all just makes me feel so good inside. Look, see? Evidence! I'm real! I exist! My story is true!
mood: bouncy
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Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Persecution of Baha'is in Iran intensifies

From: http://news.bahai.org/story/632

"Six Bahá’í leaders in Iran were arrested and taken to the notorious Evin prison yesterday in a sweep that is ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Bahá’í leaders were summarily rounded up and killed."

Please help us get the word out.
Contact your government representatives, Congresspeople, Members of Parliament, etc. about this issue.

For more background on the history of the persecution of Baha'is since the inception of the Baha'i Faith: http://question.bahai.org
mood: worried
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Monday, May 12th, 2008

Support cyclone victims in Myanmar/Burma.

This organization, Hope is Life, has established a relief fund for victims of the cyclone in Myanmar. The program is being administered with the guidance of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Myanmar.

Baha'is wishing to support relief efforts can donate to the International Baha'i Fund, earmarking their donations as for Myanmar.

(x-posted to [info]ljbahai)
mood: concerned
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